Newcastle Falcons are hoping to capitalise on the region’s Rugby World Cup bounce when they host Gloucester in Friday’s Aviva Premiership opener.

The delayed start to the league season may at one stage have seemed a hindrance for England’s 12 competing clubs, forced to wait five months between league games due to international matters.

But in Newcastle’s case it now appears perfect timing for a city and a region well and truly bitten by the rugby bug.

A trio of stunning St James’ Park matches during the past fortnight have created a demand on which the Falcons simply must capitalise, and the club for their part are doing their best to transfer the Rugby World Cup interest in their direction.

The only top-flight team between Leicester and Edinburgh on the eastern side of the country carries major geographical significance for the sport, but what can Falcons followers realistically expect from the coming campaign?

In each of the club’s last four Premiership seasons they have finished in the bottom two, and you have to go back to 2006 for the last time they finished above the bottom four.

The bookies have them pegged for second-last this time round with newly-promoted Worcester going down, but is the external cynicism justified?

There is certainly a strong case to be made for the Falcons aiming higher, especially in light of some impressive summer recruitment.

Just how quickly they can get their new signings up to speed seems the biggest question, a mixture of injuries and Rugby World Cup call-ups giving them little or no time to work with many of their new arrivals.

The quality is there, though, and anybody at St James’ Park last Friday could not have failed to have been impressed by Tonga captain Nili Latu.

Italy wing Giovanbattista Venditti has been a regular starter for the Azzurri and prop Jon Welsh has helped propel Scotland to the World Cup quarter-finals.

Former All Black fly-half Mike Delany caught the eye in his one and only pre-season outing against Sale Sharks and American veteran Todd Clever has looked the business in the back-row following his September arrival.

Michael Young, Taione Vea and Paddy Ryan are yet to show their wares as they battle pre-season niggles, but let’s not forget Newcastle already have plenty of attacking talent on board.

Raising their try-scoring output from 23 tries to 57 in the space of a season, the challenge now is to tighten up a defence which shipped 61 in its 22 league outings.

Head coach John Wells has taken on defensive duties following the departure of Graham Steadman, director of rugby Dean Richards determined to build on a year of unfulfilled promise.

A growing season ticket base and an attractive playing style on their one-year-old synthetic pitch all point to a bright future, but nobody at Kingston Park is kidding themselves about the timeframe.

Success at this level does not come instantly, and anything above a bottom two or three finish has to be taken as tangible and achievable progress.